Watson AI powers mindcoa.ch online psychological self-help solution

A European Neuropsychopharmacology study determined that 95 percent of the people who need mental help won’t receive it, and the 5 percent that do get it receive help five to 10 years too late. The statistics are similar for the United States.

Something needs to change. In some European countries, it takes half a year until a patient can start therapy, meaning a lot of valuable time is lost.

We created mindcoa.ch, an integrated mobile health platform, to provide users access to a mental support system “staffed” with virtual coaches and therapists available around the clock available on PC or smartphone.

What makes mindcoa.ch different

There are tens of thousands of mental health apps available today, but most of them include chatbots rather than artificial intelligence.

The mindcoa.ch system uses natural language processing algorithms, which have been trained by content experts, to understand users and have intelligent conversations in either a digital or spoken dialogue. The system offers relevant guidance and tips that are refined based on sentiment and personality insights detected in the user’s communication pattern.

At the heart of the online mental support system is a suite of IBM Watson services running on the IBM Cloud. Immediately upon its founding, one of the first things company leaders did was participate in the IBM Watson Build challenge, which gave mindcoa.ch a terrific boost with Watson and IBM Cloud services credit, access to IBM technical consultants and the opportunity to showcase the solution.

Leaders at mindcoa.ch found that developing with Watson was fast because there were so many features that worked well right “out of the box.”

Users can input questions digitally or communicate verbally with the system. The mindcoa.ch solution can determine wither the user responses contain negative or positive sentiments and also analyze communications to determine personality type.

How mindcoa.ch works

Our mindcoa.ch app can be used as a standalone system or as a complement to traditional face-to-face counseling. The system is available late at night or during the weekend, so people have immediate access to care with a low barrier to entry.

Additionally, if a user isn’t sure who to call or is having a hard time making that initial call, he or she could start with a virtual counselor. Doctors can also use mindcoa.ch AI to detect problems faster.

From an enterprise point of view, mindcoa.ch provides companies with a way to affordably offer support services to their employees, potentially improving their satisfaction and productivity and reducing or preventing stress and burnout.

While AI won’t replace traditional mental health counseling, it certainly has the potential to make it far more accessible than it is today. It also complies with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Learn how you can fast track your AI concept with IBM Watson and Cloud services.